Editor’s note for Wednesday, June 16, 2021

My thoughts today:

After ramping up “tougher rhetoric against China” at the G7 meeting in Brussels, and successfully encouraging other member states to do the same, U.S. President Joe Biden said “America was back at the table.”

Then he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Geneva today, with “constructive” results.

At a press conference Biden gave after the meeting, a journalist asked Biden if he could ask his “old friend” Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 to open up China for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 (on Youtube here). Biden’s first reaction was to say:

Let’s get something straight. We know each other well, we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business.

Biden went on to say:

China is trying very hard to project itself as a responsible nation…Certain things you don’t have to explain to the people of the world. They see the results. Is China really trying to get to the bottom of this?

The American president concluded that his priority was to work with other countries to set up a mechanism to detect and respond to the next pandemic.

Biden’s enthusiasm for foreign affairs is a contrast to his predecessor’s lack of interest in the rest of the world. But the new U.S president still has his work cut out for him if he hopes to keep with Xi Jinping’s non-stop travel and international meeting schedule:

“Analysing the data on overseas visits by the U.S. president and China’s president from 1989–2019 reveals that China overtook the United States last decade in the quantity, duration and breadth of its presidential diplomacy,” writes Neil Thomas in a piece for the Lowy Institute, subtitled “Memo for the White House: You should get out more.”

Upcoming events:

• June 23: Chinese cross-border investing in developing markets with Haitou Global CEO Jerry Wang.
• June 30: A book discussion with Cheng Li on his new book, Middle Class Shanghai, and why the U.S. needs to readjust its thinking when it comes to China.

Our word of the day is Taishan Nuclear Power Plant (台山核电厂 táishān hédiàn chǎng).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief